Wake Forest’s search for stronger non-conference games playing out
The “control the controllable” cliché can be appropriately applied for Wake Forest’s construction of a non-conference basketball schedule.
The Deacons’ strength of schedule – or lack thereof – was the main factor in the ACC’s fifth-place team being left out of the NCAA tournament.
Wake Forest can’t singlehandedly change the perception of the ACC – Wake’s 22-point win against eventual national runner-up North Carolina wasn’t even a Quad-1 game – but the Deacons are addressing the non-conference portion.
“I think it’s a fine line,” coach Steve Forbes said on the eve of the NIT. “I came here with intentions of getting 10 to 12 quad-1 opportunities in the league and we got four. Is that an outlier? How do you predict that? I don’t know.
"We do have to, no question, we've got to do our best to upgrade the schedule."
Wake’s non-conference schedule last season saw five straight home games to start the season, all against low-to-mid-major teams. Another three-game stretch in December (two home games, one neutral) against mid-major teams didn’t give the résumé much of a boost.
The ACC’s 20-game league schedule doesn’t leave as much wiggle room for non-conference games as a couple of other power conference leagues – the Big 12 and SEC both play 18; the Big Ten, Pac-12 and Big East all play 20. Two SEC and two Big Ten teams – one of those is TBD – plus a likely game against a Big East team already on the docket shows Wake’s intentions of avoiding last season’s pitfall.
So far, reports and confirmation have Wake Forest playing the following notable non-conference games:
- Georgia (home, Nov. 11)
- Rutgers (away)
- LSU (neutral, Dec. 10)
That’s in addition to the Jamaica Classic, a four-team tournament from Nov. 18-20 that includes Georgetown, La Salle and Loyola Marymount.
It’s a tournament that hasn’t been played in the last two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and one that Wake Forest was contracted to play before Forbes’ arrival in Winston-Salem.
“The one thing that I’m struggling with a little bit is I’ve inherited some contracts,” Forbes said.
That, along with projecting which teams will be good and which won’t, is what Wake Forest can’t control.
In the age of the transfer portal, it’s never been harder to predict teams from year to year. Wake Forest going from six wins in 2020-21 to 25 last season is one of the best examples; Oregon State, which the Deacons beat last season, going from the Elite Eight in 2020-21 to 3-28 last season is on the other end of the spectrum.
Wake Forest will also have a game in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge – the Deacons beat Northwestern in overtime last season at home, so they’ll likely be on the road this season.
It’s worth remembering that it wasn’t until this time last year that Wake’s staff had a handle on how good the Deacons could be. It was a reassembled roster with five transfer portal additions and a five-man freshman class.
By the time the Deacons’ potential came into full focus, the schedule was completed.
“I didn’t know we were good … until August,” Forbes said in March. “We had eight weeks in the summer, schedule was long done before that.”
The upcoming season features another influx of transfers, but also a solid returning foundation with Daivien Williamson, Damari Monsanto and four of the five players who were freshmen last season.